my life and something to share

Solo Culinary Experience

Solo is one of many cities in Indonesia with great places for culinary experience, especially the night ones.Its also the home of Joko Widodo, the current President of Republic of Indonesia. Its about 2 hours ride from Yogyakarta. I haven’t been that much to Solo but here are the few places that i remember the most. I not saying that this is the best place but i dare to say that few are the authentic ones. I’m also not a culinary expert, i’m just a food enthusiast errr…i like food and eat it hahaha. This is just according to my taste bud who lives in a house with Javanese culinary home cooked meal by Mom and Sundanese atmosphere as society i’m part of. And…pardon my English.

SOTO 5393R SASTRO

I have a chance to visit two place of this SOTO SASTRO. For day experience i get to Jl. Jaya Wijaya and Jl. Adi Sucipto for the night experience at 1 am (it open from 10 pm’till early morning). I lost my soto photograph but i still have the snack ones hehehe. The soto itself is serve in a very small bowl at a price of 8000 rupiah, this is serious. No joke, it is that cheap when i bought it. I asked the rice to be separate from the soup. It had two variation of Soto, the beef soup one and the chicken one. How does it taste? Honestly not much hahaha. Its a bit bland for my taste, i need more pepper and salt. But worry not, you can order Nasi Pecel or even Selat..I’ll tell you about Selat later. Here you’ll find pretty much almost every traditional snack that Solo have. Loot at that Tahu Bakso, Sosis Solo, Bakso Goreng and Sate Telur Puyuh that i had. So, for that small portion of Soto, your belly can filled with those snack to get full. And worry not, its cheap. I spent about 80k for 1 soto, 2 selat, 1 nasi pecel, 5 drinks and those snack.All hail solo.

Gudeg Cakar Bu Kasno

Bu Kasno

Gudeg No Cakar

What can i say about this…it feels like home. This Gudeg is very authentic, i mean real javanese traditional culinary. For you that not a fan if sweet savory taste of javanese meal, you might skip it. Okay, this is gudeg. Usually its dish made from a young-jackfruit, cooked with sweet(very sweet) and savory coconut milk for hours until the fruit is melt in your mouth, yep no need to chew. But here, you don’t get the jackfruit, only chicken and sambal krecek.The sambal is supposed to be hot, yes? But its not, it is really not that hot. As the carbo, they use porridge instead of rice. There are also other condiments but i go with only that for a simple dish. The specialty is cakar/ceker/chicken feet, you can order it separately. Since i’m not a fan of chicken feet so i don’t have it hehehe.

How does it taste? Simple, its (very) sweet and savory. You can taste a great amount of coconut milk from both the porridge and gudeg. Those coconut milk taste is the reason i called it feels like home. My mom always make those kind of porridge for dad, and the gudeg itself, because i’m a javanese, its just my taste but uh..maybe a little too sweet, yeah too sweet. My friend, a padang ethnic hate it hahaha

The place is around SMA 1 Surakarta, almost at the end of the road, near the traffic light. This is a a night experience street food only. I passed the street at 1 am, and its not even there yet. When i got there past 2 am, people already queued. I met Bu Kasno itself, the old lady on the picture. I amazed. She’s the only one doing the portioning. She had a few assistant to deliver and order. Its kinda chaotic there.The place is small and crowd, and people order directly (sometimes to Bu Kasno, others to the assistant) and she just sat in silence and somehow everyone gets the right order. This is a new experience for me, I’m literally amazed by her. I don’t know how much it cost, because my former boss paid for it hehe.

Selat Mbak Lies

Selat Sapi

a small road to Selat Mbak Lies

This place is LEGENDARY or so they say. There are saying if you went to Solo and haven’t taste this dish on this place, you have to go back and find it. First let me explain to you about what kind of dish is SELAT before i tell you how it taste. Selat is a fusion (i think) of a western dish to be adjusted with local taste. It looks like a steak but the sauce is thin and overflowing like a soup. So, its almost like a beef stew. We called it a bistik, a local version of steak. This bistik is served with potato wedges, carrots, lettuce, tomato and cucumber in one place and then the sauce is given on top until it filled the plate.

How does it taste? Its sweet and savory (again) but different savory from gudeg. While gudeg used a very thick coconut milk this one is savory from garlic, shallot, pepper and coriander.I kinda like this, but the sauce is just too much. I mean i kinda confuse how to approach this dish. It look like a steak but eaten like a soup hahaha

Selat Mbak Lies is kinda hard to find. I mean if it weren’t for a local friend, i might not find it. It only had a small sign from the main road, and the you have to walk a few hundred meter to get there. The place is small and it filled with porcelain and ceramic plate, pots, ewer everywhere. Like on the wall and on the ground. I, myself had to be careful. So i won’t stumble and break any. Every plate on the wall is signed by famous people in Indonesia, Celebrities and Public Officials. So, i recommend not to bring toddler here unless the can stay still for as long as you eat. The price is about 30k-40k for Selat and 10k-20k for drinks. You can also have other Solo’s traditional snack here.

Angkringan

Solo is also famous for its Angkringan, a place for street snack at night. I think its their cultural heritage. I mean in Yogya i found that Angkringan is mostly for traveler looking for night snack while in Solo the locals loved to stay up late and having street snack, both young and old. I could be wrong thought, but for me it feels like that. Because you there are some road that closed only to serve that purpose.

What does Angkringan have? Almost every angkringan serve everything. A traditional food from small portion of rice and various of condiments and drinks. You’ll find deep fried snacks, bakso, tahu bakso, usus, kulit, etc. You also have rice cakes (sweet/salty), gethuk, fermented sticky rice and so on. My all time favorite is drinks with ginger. It just soothe the nerve and calms you down. Milk with ginger or simple rice cake/mochi with ginger soup. Ah…they’re the best.

One new things that i found in Angkringan in Solo is that fermented sticky rice as drinks. Its a hot gingery water and sometimes with milk and then added 1-2 scoop of fermented sticky rice. How does it taste? It taste like a beer but hot one. You’ll get that taste of alcohol in hot drink. Yeah, it’ll burn you hahaha because i feel that way. Its unique for me, yet i’m not a fan. I rather go back to milk with ginger. Those on the picture about are the fermented sticky rice drink (the green one), ginger with milk and an almost finished fried chicken skin and liver (i think).

Dapur Solo

There are other place i went in solo but i forgot to take the picture. Above is the picture i got from google, sorry. The name is Dapur Solo and as you can see its a buffet restaurant. You just take what you want, get to the cashier, pay and eat. The dishes are varied authentic javanese cuisine. For the vegetable you only paid a few thousand rupiah per dish on your plate as for the protein it might cost higher per kind of protein. An egg is cheaper than chicken, something like that. The place is clean and easy to find. I get to the one in Slamet Ryadi by the train tracks. The food is good, tasty and its not costly as it look. Its perfect for family meal.

Okay Solo… i surely want to get back again. Lots of place for culinary grail that i haven’t get to taste. So, see you again..